charlie’s 2nd birthday party

yesterday, we celebrated charlie’s 2nd birthday. I am SOOO glad we had this party a month early because it was a joy to watch charlie soak up being celebrated and delighted in before his sisters take over the show for awhile.

we started off the morning with charlie coming into our big bed and opening 2 gifts from us. they were 2 dr. suess books. he was happy to read them with his fire truck balloon and siren truck.

after coming out and seeing the decorations and running around the island and through the streamers 1 billion times we got charlie dressed and fed.

here is a clip of charlie running through the streamers.

then he was able to open a gift from aunt suz and uncle dan. he was pumped to see another thomas train!

a few family pics before church. only a couple more weeks of being a family of 3!

me and my birthday boy on my 29th birthday.

after church we continued to open a few gifties from nana and pops. we had to spread the love out otherwise it was present overload.

do you think he was excited?

he also had a blast playing with balloons with pops. I don’t play with balloons because the squeakiness of the balloons makes me want to puke (pregnant or not!).

I love his face in this picture!

then guesties started arriving.

nicole, cayden (4 weeks old), and me.

charlie just wanted to “hold baby cayden” and nicole was so patient with him. he was kissing him the entire time. we had to pry charlie’s hands off of cayden because he finally started crying. charlie was so sweet and gentle with him.

then the gifts started. uncle pete and aunt margit gave charlie a “rev up”. the guys at the party played with it the entire day. I am still trying to figure it out! charlie loves it he just needs a bit of help to work it.

bubba and pappy gave charlie another precious gift. it is a leather bomber jacket that bill wore as a little boy. bill’s aunt lynn purchased it in rome in 1982.

charlie modeling the jacket…not sure what is up with the face.

then bill brought up a gift for me. now let me explain that I had made it clear to bill that I really didn’t want charlie’s birthday party turning into mine and I really didn’t want any gifts. we have been purchasing tons of stuff for the girls and I bought a diaper bag so I told him that could count. as charlie’s gifts were wrapping up bill came up the stairs with this big bag. I was so relieved when I saw the diaper bag in the bag. I thought…fine if he wants to give me a gift then at least he stuck with “my plan”. then he handed me a little card and it started the hunt. he had written really sweet cards that marched me through all of the pockets of the diaper bag (one of the features we really liked).

going through the bag…

as I continued to go through all of the cards I was suspicious that bill might have decided to purchase another eternity band for me. I have been talking (probably since our wedding night) about how I would love to stack different eternity bands on my ring finger and I have definitely mentioned that we are approaching a perfect storm….our 5 year anniversary (june) and carrying 2 babies. I did not, however, think that he would have purchased the ring without us looking at them and evaluating them. not to mention he was wicked busy the past 2 weeks. so as I was going through the bag I gave bill a few different evil glances and comments. then I got to the end and sure enough bill had gotten me another band! I was delighted and surprised (which I don’t always like). then in typical steph fashion (ie: no filter!) I say “did you get a different size?” and bill graciously answers “it is the size I can afford”. it is all on video so I can never forget that I say the dumbest things sometimes. thankfully, bill knows me and realized that I loved the gift.

getting the box…

here is the new set up.

after that surprise we moved on to cake. back to c little!

charlie and his 2 bffs – addison and kaia. sadly, this is the only picture we have of the 3 of them! wish I would have sat them on the couch for a picture.

singing “happy day to you!”

bill gave charlie free reign with his slice of cake.

do you think he liked it???

kaia gave charlie two books and he LOVES them.

then charlie wanted to thank kaia and say goodbye. we have NO idea where he learned to “kiss” like this (eyes closed and head tilt!)! bill said he is 2 going on 21!!! thankfully, hans, kaia’s dad, swooped in to rescue his daughter.

with that we had to end the party. happy birthday to my almost 2 year old little boy! we love you so much charlie!

party prep

my parents came into town this weekend to help celebrate charlie’s birthday (1 month early – april 9th is his actual birthday) and my birthday. as usual, I had a list for my dad when he arrived. charlie loves helping g. pops with his projects.

he also loves working on his balance with pops and singing “ahhhhh”.

I was so happy when the fire truck cake came out of the model without any issues.

then I set about frosting the cake. it went pretty smoothly, but we did have a few unplanned trips to the store/s because who knew you needed a TON of red dye to turn white frosting into a fire truck red color. in case you were wondering, yes my hand and forearm were sore by the end of the day.

glad to be nearing the end.

the finished cake. charlie was delighted to see the cake after he woke up from nap.

bill was taking his inservice exam the entire day so when he arrived home we had an easy dinner and I got to blow out some candles for my 29th birthday. my mom brought these party popper things that were super loud. obviously, charlie loved them.

we ended the night with hanging some decorations.

I totally critiqued bill for hanging these streamers and had to eat my words when they were charlie’s most favorite thing in the morning. it was precious to watch him run into the living room and catch the streamers in the corner of his eye...stop and go back to the streamers and instantly start running through them. he then continued to want to run around the island going through the streamers each lap saying "more this" when he would finish. it was a delight to see his excitement.

happy birthday bubba

laura is a wonderful bubba. charlie adores her and i so appreciate the things she does for our little family.

it is her birthday today and charlie wanted to leave her a message. happy birthday laura/bubba! we love you!





on friday night we drove to mary's apartment in northfield to gather for laura's surprise party. it was a wonderful celebration and so much fun to surprise laura. charlie was all smiles with his bubba.

bad dog!

overall, lily is a super easy and good dog. i would say she annoys me more than ever now that i have a toddler and am really pregnant because she wants attention and i have no energy to give to her. sometimes having her and charlie play is like managing 2 toddlers. he will hit her for no reason so i have to put him in time out, she will play with his most favorite mini basketball without him throwing it to her so i put her downstairs. sometimes he wants to play catch with her but after he throws the ball he is conflicted about whether or not he wants her to actually retrieve the ball. so he will get angry and hit her. if she waits then he looks at her and screams "go dog go"! the poor dog can't win.

bill has had this elephant chair since college. i believe he found it at a rummage sale and his mom had it recovered for him. anyway - the thing has definitely been used and had a few rips in the fabric. lily typically lays on the chair when we are out of the house for the day. she is not a dog that destroys things, but the other day i went downstairs after we got home and found that she had decided to pull the stuffing out of the rips (and make the rips bigger). i was not happy with her and told her she was a bad dog. charlie fully embraced this new phrase and continued to call lily bad dog (with a finger point for good measure) for the rest of the day. i am working on him just gently pushing lily back with his hand when she is in his way and saying "excuse me". we will see if it catches on.

lily feeling guilty...


here is charlie reenacting lily's punishment session.

nesting and more nesting

I have to say I think I have been nesting with this pregnancy from 6 weeks on. but lately I have kicked it up a notch. I have been stock piling basics like toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, etc. I have also organized and prepped for the girls arrival. for charlie, I have a binder that I put all of his immunization and growth charts in. so for the girls I already have their binders ready to go – labeled and all. I have been cleaning and trying to deep clean a bit, but I feel like it is not worth my energy because with a toddler it goes back to its original state pretty quickly.

here is my new and improved junk drawer. bill can attest to the fact that this is a TON better than before!

charlie’s drawer of plates, bowls, sippy cups, etc was driving me crazy. this is the best I could do and so far I like it.

the girls closet was overwhelming for me. charlie never had this many clothes and all the girl stuff is so pink that it just blends together. so I ordered size organizers on amazon and with my handy dandy label maker I can change the labels at any point. love it!

here is my attempt to manage their onesies…we will see if it works.

I finished my craft project. our other set of bedding has still not arrived so once that arrives I will post the other side of the nursery. I am really happy with how the project turned out!

the letter standoff

as I mentioned before, charlie is really into his abc’s. I broke down and bought him a leapfrog abc fridge toy thing that repeats the letter and sound that the child puts inside it’s house and also sings the abc song. I will admit that I said (probably more than once) that I would NEVER purchase that annoying toy. well – I did, he loves it and I have already gotten used to the annoying noises. amazing how that happens.

besides just listening to the song and sounds charlie loves to fling all the letters off the fridge onto the floor. fun fun. except I don’t always want to be stepping or tripping on letters. so we decided that charlie can put the letters on the floor, but he has to pick them up before he moves on to another toy. on sunday he decided he was going to test this rule with bill and was I glad bill was there to hold strong.

charlie was getting tired and decided to throw the letters on the ground. then he wanted to leave the kitchen and bill reminded him that he had to put the letters back on the fridge before leaving and that was the start of the standoff. charlie would pick up a few letters and then try to leave the kitchen and bill would remind him about the rest of the letters and he would just stare at them. bill set up boundaries by telling him he couldn’t touch the carpet and could not pass the dishwasher and charlie was really good about staying inside those (with a bit of reminding). then the vicious cycle began…charlie would put up a letter or two, decide he didn’t want to continue, roll on the ground or pretend swim on the ground, pull out some tupperware, take down a few letters, whine and it would start over. bill decided to up the ante a bit by pulling out a hammer and hammering things (charlie loves this!). another 30 minutes later and bill brought out the phone to call pappy when he finished. another 20 minutes later and we brought up his ba poo and bu buk (pacifier and blanket) because it was nap time and he was so wishing for nap. when we asked him what he needed to do he would say “letters…fridge”. but, he still continued with his standoff…

note the hammer in bill’s hand.

finally…after about an hour and fifteen minutes charlie decided to follow our basic instructions (try picking up the “a” and putting it on the fridge, etc) and once he decided to do it he quickly put them all up and we had an obedience party.

charlie was so ready to get his prizes and instantly broke the coaster that bill had been hammering with. oh well – that is what we get giving him a stone coaster to hammer on. as a parent it is so wonderful to see the joy on your child’s face when they obey you. I was so grateful bill was home to manage the standoff. he does such a good job being calm and relaxed. pushing through the standoff was totally worth it. all week charlie has been a PRO at putting the letters back on the fridge when I remind him. holding your ground as a parent, even when it is not convenient, is worth it.

32 weeks

ahhhhhh!! the weeks are flying by and I am both excited and ready to meet our girls and freaking out at the thought of what 2 newborns/babies/toddlers is going to be like. I can’t even think about the sleepless nights or it sends me into a downward spiral. I love my sleep and I am much more “with it” when I get it. so I am just enjoying the full nights of rest I am getting now, the ease of running errands with 1 child, the ability to go to the RAC and workout almost daily, and the extra time I have with charlie because I know my life is going to get flipped upside down in 4 short weeks. I also know these girls are easier inside than out.

anyway – we had another great ultrasound today. the girls are doing wonderfully and don’t look like they want out yet (praise God!). baby a weighs about 3 lbs 10 oz and baby b weighs about 3 lbs 12 oz. the only new news was that baby b “flipped” and is now breech. a few nights ago, I woke up thinking that the girls were moving a TON and that something funky was going on in there. that must have been when baby b flipped around or they were just having play time – who knows. I have no idea how there is enough space in there to flip, but the ultrasound tech would say things like “oh they swim around a lot in there” or “she looks comfy”…what? are you looking at the same babies I am? I mean baby a has her foot by her mouth and the tech was describing her as looking “very relaxed and comfy”! in other news, we scheduled my c-section today for march 23rd. if I go into labor naturally, I will most likely try to deliver the girls naturally. however, I am not getting induced again. so if they decide to stay put until march 23rd I will go in for a planned c-section. originally my doctor wanted to deliver them on monday of that week, but with bill only getting 48 hours off and the girls doing so well our doctor agreed that it would be ok if we pushed it back a couple days. that way bill will get his 48 hrs of leave and be able to take off friday and have about 5 days with us. ah the joys of residency.

here is baby a with her foot by her mouth. she is folded in half!

here is baby b. their profiles are getting hard to see because their bones are becoming thicker (or at least that is what bill told me).

here I am at 32 weeks (this past sunday…thanks for letting me use your shirt kate! I love it!).

and just because he is sooo cute. here is charlie with bill’s hat on (from when he was younger). I love that laura saved some of bill’s stuff. I really need to try to do that.